Day 1 Arrival in Windhoek 

After landing at the Hosea Kutako International Airport, 40 km outside Windhoek, we’ll be met and greeted by our representative who will transfer us to Windhoek where we’ll will stay at the Hilton Hotel for the night. After checking in at the hotel you will have some time to recover from your long journey and prepare for the adventure that lies ahead. Dinner tonight can either be taken at the Hilton’s excellent restaurant or at one of the famous restaurants out in town.


Windhoek Capital City: Windhoek, Namibia’s capital nestles among rolling hills, bounded by the Eros Mountains in the east, the Auas Mountains to the south and the Khomas Hochland in the west. It is a meeting place between Africa and Europe, the modern and the old. In the capital’s main street, well-preserved German colonial buildings are in sharp contrast with modern architectural styles, while Herero women in their traditional Victorian dresses mingle with executives dressed in the latest fashions. Centrally located within Namibia, Windhoek is an excellent starting point for an adventurous holiday for many visitors to the country and an ideal base from where to explore the rest of the country. 


Hilton Hotel: In the heart of Namibia's capital city lies the spectacular Hilton Hotel. In an exceptional downtown location, Hilton Windhoek emanates pure opulence with impressive facilities and Hilton's hallmark hospitality. The Hilton Windhoek Hotel’s lobby lounge and café, Centrum, features large bay windows and warm, neutral decor. With 110 seats split over a stylish lounge area and a tree-shaded, decked terrace, Centrum at the Hilton Windhoek Hotel overlooks the vibrant city of Windhoek. The Hilton offers 150 rooms and suites, and their King Guest rooms will provide guests with both space and comfort.  Rooms feature traditional African inspired décor and are furnished with king-sized beds, LCD TV, high-speed internet access and an elegant en-suite bathroom with a range of luxurious amenities and separate rain shower.


Overnight: Hilton Hotel  Bed & Breakfast 
www.hilton.com/Windhoek

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Day 2 Windhoek to Lüderitz

Departing after breakfast, you are transferred to the Windhoek/Hosea Kutako International Airport, in time for your Air Namibia flight to Lüderitz (flight not included in costing.


Upon arrival at the Lüderitz airport, you will be met by your Ultimate Safaris guides, who will accompany you on your photographic adventure for the next 12 days. Your guide will brief you on the details of your upcoming safari at the Nest Hotel.


Lunch is included for you today.


This afternoon we have arranged a special photographic entrance to the Kolmanskop Ghost Town, located just on the outskirts of Lüderitz and offering some spectacular photographic opportunities of sand engulfing what were once luxurious homes, a sad relic of a bygone era. (Non-commercial photographic permit included). Dinner at the Nest Hotel is included for tonight, the restaurant boasting great views over a lagoon.


Kolmanskop Ghost Town: Namibia’s most famous ghost town, Kolmanskop, is situated in the Sperrgebiet about 10 km inland from Luderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Jani Coleman, who lived in the settlement of Aus at the turn of the century. During a severe sandstorm he was forced to abandon his ox wagon on the small incline from where Kolmanskop can be seen. It stood there for a while; giving rise to the name Colemanshuegel, which eventually became Kolmanskop. In 1908 the railway worker Zacharias Lewala found a sparkling stone amongst the sand he was shoveling away from the railway line near Kolmanskop. August Stauch, his supervisor, was convinced he had found a diamond. When this was confirmed, the news spread like wildfire, sparking a frantic diamond rush and causing fortune hunters to converge in droves on Kolmanskop. It soon became a bustling little centre with a butchery, bakery, furniture factory, soda water and lemonade plant, four-skittle alley, a public playground and even a casino and swimming pool. The town’s development reached its pinnacle in the twenties, with approximately 300 German adults, 40 children and 800 Owambo contract workers living there. In spite of, or probably because of, the isolation and bleakness of the surrounding desert, Kolmanskop developed into a lively little haven of German culture, offering entertainment and creation to suit the requirements of the affluent colonialists for whom large, elegant houses were built. 
The well-equipped hospital boasted southern Africa’s first X-ray machine. However, when richer diamond deposits were discovered further south, the CDM (now Namdeb) headquarters were moved to Oranjemund in 1943, in 1950 all mining operations ceased and by 1956 the town was totally deserted. Today the ghost town’s crumbling ruins bear little resemblance to its former glory. The stately homes, their grandeur now scoured and demolished by the wind, are gradually becoming sand. In 1980 the mining company CDM restored a number of the buildings and established a museum for tourist viewing.  At the end of the day you will return to the comforts of the Nest Hotel to freshen up before dinner.


Lüderitz Bucht: The town of Lüderitz stands in isolation on a great frontier between the desert and ocean. Beyond the structures huddled together beside the bay and a lighthouse on the peninsula, the surroundings are much as Bartolomeu Dias found them in 1487, when his flotilla of three small ships first sailed into the uncharted anchorage. The town lands form an enclave in the ‘Sperrgebiet’, 26,000km of coastal desert rich in diamonds. The greater part of the Sperrgebiet lies to the south. Northward the dune fields of the great Sand Sea sprawl overland to the horizon and far beyond. Lüderitz was built on a windswept, rocky hillside and ridge beside the bay. Behind the town, out of sight from the sea, a black-topped road runs into the interior. Outside the town limits it passes Kolmanskop, now a ghost town, where diamonds were first mined in the Namib. Lüderitz is located on the only part of the Namibian coast with a rocky shore. A peninsula with numerous coves, locally called fjords and bays, juts out of the coast at an angle to form the bay proper. Three small islands – Penguin, Seal and Flamingo – lie within the bay. Shark Island was once also an island in the bay, but a solid causeway now joins it to the mainland. It encloses the harbour and yacht basin.


Lüderitz Nest Hotel: Situated directly on the Bay, Lüderitz Nest Hotel offers sea-facing rooms with en-suite bathrooms, telephone, air-conditioning, television, and tea/coffee facilities. The private beach, sauna, swimming pool and bar with views over the Lüderitz Bay enhance your stay. The restaurant offers an excellent variety of seafood, including the famous Lüderitz oyster and lobster, freshly attained out of the vibrant fishing harbour.


Overnight: Lüderitz Nest Hotel      Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
Sightseeing with Ultimate Guide & vehicle
www.nesthotel.com
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Day 3 Elizabeth Bay & Kolmanskop Ghost Towns

Today you will be treated to a fascinating excursion into the Sperrgebiet prohibited area to visit the historic sights of Elizabeth Bay and Kolmanskop. The guided tour will give you an insight into the rich history of diamond mining in Namibia and the rise and fall of both Elizabeth Bay and Kolmanskop, as well as an idea of what everyday life in these settlements would have been like. 


Elizabeth Bay Ghost Town: Located about 30km south of Lüderitz within the Sperrgebiet National Park, Elizabeth Bay ghost town lies on the coast and has therefore eroded much faster than Kolmanskop ghost town. Battering winds and coastal fog that has crumbled the structures into fascinating skeletons of what they once were. The town was built to house mineworkers and their families. Inhabited from 1926 to 1935, it is now being recaptured by the desert and has become a windswept place of fragile ruins. Diamonds were mined off and on at Elizabeth Bay from 1911 to 1948 with major interruptions due to world wars and economic recessions. The mine was reopened nearby the ghost town in 1991 with modern infrastructure, and can be seen on the drive to Elizabeth Bay ghost town. The workforce for this new mine now lives in Lüderitz.


Overnight: Lüderitz Nest Hotel           Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast & Activities with Ultimate Guide
Elizabeth Bay and Kolmanskop Ghost Town with local tour operator             
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Day 4 Lüderitz to Sossusvlei

You depart after a very early breakfast, as you make your way north into the Namib Desert, keeping a lookout for the legendary feral desert horses along the way. From Aus you head north through spectacular scenery of the Tiras Mountain Conservancy and a section of the NamibRand Nature Reserve, with a picnic lunch included, before arriving at the Namib Naukluft National Park to reach Sossus Dune Lodge late afternoon. 


Here you will stay for one night whilst you explore the remarkable sights of the Namib Desert with your guide. Sossus Dune Lodge is the only lodge that affords you prime location within the boundaries of the Namib Naukluft National Park.  If there is still time today, your guide will take you to visit Sesriem Canyon, a nearby geological attraction, or explore Elim Dune.  You can get some stunning sundowner shots of the dunes and the Namib Desert from the base of your camp.


Feral Horses: An intriguing feature of the Sperrgebiet is the legendary desert horses seen from the road when traveling between Lüderitz and Aus. There are several theories regarding their origin. Some considered that they were descended from farm animals that had escaped, or were horses of the stud belonging to Baron von Wolf, who built Duwiseb Castle north east of Garub and another theory is that they are descended from the German Schutztruppe who abandoned Aus during the South West African Campaign in 1915. New recent research carried out by Telané Greyling in 2005 suggests that the herd was drawn from all of the above as well as the South African army. About 100km east of Lüderitz, a signpost indicates the turn-off to Garub, a maintained water point where the wild horses can be observed and photographed as they come back to drink.


Sesriem Canyon: Sesriem Canyon has evolved through centuries of erosion by the Tsauchab River which has incised a narrow gorge about 1.5 km long and 30 meters deep into the surrounding conglomerates, exposing the varying layers of sedimentation deposited over millions of years. The shaded cool depths of the canyon allow pools of water to gather during the rainy season and remain for much of the year round. These pools were a vital source of water for early settlers who drew water for their livestock by knotting six (ses) lengths of rawhide thongs (riems) together, hence the canyon and surrounding area became known as Sesriem.


Overnight: Sossusvlei Lodge                    Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
Sightseeing with Ultimate Guide & vehicle
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Day 5 Sossusvlei Area / Namib Desert

Today will be a full day of photography as you rise early this morning for a magical excursion into the dunes with your guide. As you are already inside the park you can get into Sossusvlei before everyone else and you would even be able to get there in time to see the sun rise to capture the dunes whilst the light is soft and shadows accentuate their towering shapes and curves. This area boasts some of the highest free-standing sand dunes in the world as well as the Dead Vlei, a cracked pan with its 800 year old dead trees, framed by Big Daddy and other smaller dunes. Your guide will give you an insight on the formation of the Namib Desert and its myriad of fascinating creatures and plants that have adapted to survive these harsh environs. Once you have explored the area to your heart’s content you can enjoy a relaxed picnic breakfast in the shade of a camel thorn tree.  You will then arrive at the Sossusvlei Lodge, where you stay for tonight, stopping off to view Sesriem Canyon along the way if you didn’t visit the canyon the day before. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure (from experience, this is usually welcomed after an exhilarating morning in the dunes).


Sossusvlei: This most frequently visited section of the massive 50,000km² Namib Naukluft National Park has become known as Sossusvlei, famous for its towering apricot coloured sand dunes which can be penetrated by following the Tsauchab River valley. Sossusvlei itself is actually a clay pan set amidst these star shaped dunes which stand up to 300 meters above the surrounding plains, ranking them among the tallest dunes on earth. The deathly white clay pan contrasts against the orange sands and forms the endpoint of the ephemeral Tsauchab River, within the interior of the Great Sand Sea. The river course rises south of the Naukluft Mountains in the Great Escarpment. It penetrates the sand sea for some 55km before it finally peters out at Sossusvlei, about the same distance from the Atlantic Ocean. Until the encroaching dunes blocked its course around 60,000 years ago, the Tsauchab River once reached the sea; as ephemeral rivers still do in the northern half of the Namib. Sand-locked pans to the west show where the river previously flowed to before dunes shifted its endpoint to where it currently gathers at Sossusvlei. Roughly once a decade rainfall over the catchment area is sufficient to bring the river down in flood and fill the pan. On such occasions the mirror images of dunes and camel thorn trees around the pan are reflected in the water. Sossusvlei is the biggest of four pans in the vicinity. Another, famous for its gnarled and ghostly camel thorn trees, is Deadvlei which can be reached on foot over 1km of sand. Deadvlei’s striking camel thorn trees, dead for want of water, still stand erect as they once grew. They survived until about 900 years ago when the sand sea finally blocked the river from occasionally flooding the pan.


Sossusvlei Lodge: Located next to the entrance gate of the Namib – Naukluft Park almost unnoticed in a vast of unparalleled desert beauty, is Sossusvlei Lodge, your gateway to the Namib. Shaded by ancient camel-thorn trees, the Lodge bears testimony to the ingenuity of an eco-friendly design. Accommodation is in 45 en-suite bedroom units, each sleeping four. 


After an exciting day in the desert, you can shake off the desert dust with an ice-cold local lager in the unique bar, take a refreshing dip in the sparkling pool or browse through our curio shop. Excellent cuisine under the guidance of our executive chef is the order of the day in the restaurant and on our al fresco terrace. Sossusvlei Lodge Adventure centre offers several activities: guided Sossusvlei trips, nature drives, sundowner drives, trips to Elim dune and Sesriem canyon, scenic flights, air taxi to /from Windhoek and Swakopmund, air charter flights, hot-air ballooning and quad biking.     


Overnight: Sossusvlei Lodge      Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
Sightseeing with Ultimate Guide & vehicle
http://sossusvleilodge.com/ 
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Day 6 Sossusvlei to Swakopmund

NOTE: Option to include a sunrise balloon flight or scenic light aircraft flight over the Namib Naukluft National Park before you depart for Swakopmund (optional extra at additional cost).


The fascinating drive today takes you northwest through awesome and ever changing desert landscapes of the Namib Naukluft National Park, including the impressive Gaub and Kuiseb canyons. You will meet the coast at the port town of Walvis Bay and then continue north to Swakopmund where you can enjoy the pleasant seaside location and cooler coastal air for your tonight. There will be time this afternoon to wander around town and along the waterfront on foot if appeals, before heading off for dinner at the popular Tug Restaurant by the jetty which specializes in freshly locally harvested seafood.


NOTE: As an alternative to the drive from Namib Desert Lodge to Swakopmund you may like to take a scenic light aircraft flight over Sossusvlei and along the Diamond Coast (optional extra at additional cost), allowing you a bird’s eye view over the dune sea, abandoned mining camps, shipwrecks, Sandwich Harbour and salt pans before you land at Swakopmund Airport. The 1½ hour flight takes you north over the famous Sossusvlei dunes and the great Namib Sea Sand (declared a natural World Heritage Site) towards to coast, where (weather dependent) you will see deserted mines, shipwrecks and seal colonies on the way up towards Sandwich Harbor and the port of Walvis Bay. A highlight is the flight over the Eduard Bohlen, a German cargo ship that ran aground in 1909 while it was on its way to Table Bay from Swakopmund. It is believed that thick fog caused the ship to founder close to Conception Bay. Years after the ship ran aground the desert began to encroach on the ocean and the ship that was once stranded in the ocean slowly became stranded in the desert. The wreck currently sits about 500 metres from the ocean, ensuring that it’s the best preserved shipwreck along Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and making it a must see for photographers.
Your guide will drive to meet up with you in Swakopmund later in the day.   


Swakopmund: Swakopmund resembles a small, German coastal resort nestled between the desert and the sea. It boasts a charming combination of German colonial architecture blended with good hotels, shops, restaurants, museums, craft centres, galleries and cafés. Swakopmund had its beginnings as a landing station in 1892 when the Imperial Navy erected beacons on the site. Settlers followed and attempts to create a harbour town by constructing a concrete Mole and then iron jetty failed. The advent of World War 1 halted developments and the town sank into decline until half a century later when infrastructures improved and an asphalt road opened between Windhoek and Swakopmund. This made reaching the previously isolated town quicker and easier and it prospered once again to become Namibia’s premier resort town. Although the sea is normally cold for swimming there are pleasant beaches and the cooler climate is refreshing after the time spent in the desert.


Overnight: Strand Hotel                  Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
All sightseeing with Ultimate Guide & vehicle.
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Day 7 Swakopmund to Erongo

This morning you explore the desert area by taking part in the fascinating and informative “Living Desert Tour”. This Desert Tour concentrates on exploring the local dune belt between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, taking special care not to damage the gravel plains and cause any unnecessary damage to the dune eco-system.  You end the tour with a light lunch before continuing onwards to the Erongo region, arriving in time for coffee / tea and a possible sundowner walk.


Overnight: Erongo Wilderness Camp       Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
Living Desert with Tommy’s Tours & Safaris
Guided walks with Erongo Wilderness Camp
All additional sightseeing with Ultimate Guide & vehicle


http://erongowilderness-namibia.com/
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Day 8 Erongo to Etosha National Park

This morning you enjoy a guided walk with the camp or just get up really early and explore the granite boulders with your guide for some great landscape photography, returning to camp for brunch. Afterwards you depart for the Etosha National Park, to arrive at the Andersson’s Camp on the southern border of Etosha by early-afternoon. This should leave some time to spare after settling in when you can enjoy the underground hide of the Andersson’s Camp for a great different view point of the wildlife visiting their waterhole.

Overnight: Etosha Safari Lodge                                   Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
All sightseeing and game drives with Ultimate Safaris guide & vehicle.  
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Day 9 & 10 Etosha National Park

The next two days are available for a full day of exciting game viewing within the central section of Etosha National Park from your private safari vehicle, which offers great vantage point from the pop top for your photography requirements.  Your guide will discuss the proposed programme with you and take you back into the Park as often as you want and whenever it suits you (based on the park regulations entering at sunrise and exiting before sunset). Andersson’s Camp  is an ideal base from which to operate and you can either have extended drives with the option to go back across towards Halali for lunch or return to Andersson’s to see what the waterhole there produces over lunch time, to return to Etosha later in the afternoon again when the light is softer.

You will have to leave the Park before sunset and return to Andersson’s Camp with enough time to relax and freshen up before for dinner. The rest of the evening can be spent game viewing at the camp’s floodlit waterhole where game comes and goes throughout the day and night.


Etosha National Park: Etosha National Park covers 22,270 km², of which approximately 5,000 km² is made up of saline depressions or ‘pans’. The largest of these pans, the Etosha Pan, can be classified as a saline desert in its own right. The Etosha Pan lies in the Owambo Basin, on the north-western edge of the Namibian Kalahari Desert. Until three million years ago it formed part of huge, shallow lake that was reduced to a complex of salt pans when the major river that fed it, the Kunene, changed course and began to flow to the Atlantic instead. If the lake existed today, it would be the third largest in the world. Etosha is the largest of the pans at 4,760 km² in extent. It is nowadays filled with water only when sufficient rain falls to the north in Angola, inducing floods to flow southward along the Cuvelai drainage system. The Park consists of grassland, woodland and savannah. Game-viewing centers around the numerous springs and waterholes where several different species can often be seen at one time. The Park boasts some 114 mammal and over 340 bird species. Wildlife that one might see includes elephant, lion, giraffe, blue wildebeest, eland, kudu, gemsbok (oryx), zebra, rhino, cheetah, leopard, hyena, honey badger and warthog, as well as the endemic black faced impala.


Overnight: Etosha Safari Lodge                          Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
All sightseeing and game drives with Ultimate Safaris guide & vehicle.  
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Day 11 Southern Etosha National Park to Eastern Etosha

Another full day inside the Etosha National Park, this time making your way from the southern Andersson’s Gate to Halali and then on across via selected waterholes such as Goas, which are normally particularly good for game viewing, to Namutoni Camp in the east. You will have to leave the Park before sunset and head out to stay at the delightful Onguma Tented Camp.


Etosha National Park: Etosha National Park covers 22,270 km², of which approximately 5,000 km² is made up of saline depressions or ‘pans’. The largest of these pans, the Etosha Pan, can be classified as a saline desert in its own right. The Etosha Pan lies in the Owambo Basin, on the north-western edge of the Namibian Kalahari Desert. Until three million years ago it formed part of huge, shallow lake that was reduced to a complex of salt pans when the major river that fed it, the Kunene, changed course and began to flow to the Atlantic instead. If the lake existed today, it would be the third largest in the world. Etosha is the largest of the pans at 4,760 km² in extent. It is nowadays filled with water only when sufficient rain falls to the north in Angola, inducing floods to flow southward along the Cuvelai drainage system. The Park consists of grassland, woodland and savannah. 
Game-viewing centers on the numerous springs and waterholes where several different species can often be seen at one time. The Park boasts some 114 mammal and over 340 bird species. Wildlife that one might see includes elephant, lion, giraffe, blue wildebeest, eland, kudu, gemsbok (oryx), zebra, rhino, cheetah, leopard, hyena, honey badger and warthog, as well as the endemic black faced impala.


Onguma Game Reserve: Situated on the eastern side of Etosha and borders Fisher’s Pan. Onguma Game Reserve has more than 20,000ha of protected land and wildlife. The nature reserve boasts over thirty different animal species consisting of plains game including kudu, giraffe, eland, oryx, hartebeest, zebra, impala and many more roam freely, as well as predators such as lion, cheetah and leopard, being common residents of the area. Onguma Game Reserve is now also proud to be home to a family of black rhinos! More than 300 bird species can also be viewed at Onguma Nature Reserve.


Onguma Tented Camp: The seven luxury en suite tents have been built using textures such as stone, suede, linen and steel which create a setting that is sleek and modern, but also inherently of the earth. Each tent overlooks the nearby waterhole. The main complex, also overlooking the waterhole, includes a reception area, lounge, wine cellar, bar, dining room, and swimming pool. Onguma Tented Camp is exquisitely styled for the more exclusive safari experience. Zebra, giraffe, lion, a variety of antelope and superb birdlife will accompany you during your stay


Overnight:   Onguma Tented Camp                  Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
All game drives and sightseeing with Ultimate Safaris guide & vehicle
www.onguma.com
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Day 12 &13 Etosha National Park

Another full day inside the Etosha National Park, with the keen eyesight of your naturalist guide aiding in any exciting wildlife sightings.


Overnight:   Onguma Tented Camp                  Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
All game drives and sightseeing with Ultimate Safaris guide & vehicle
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Day 14 Depart from Windhoek International Airport

After breakfast, you depart early for a long drive back to Windhoek.  Depending on the timings of your international flight departure, we might include a visit en route at the Otjikoto Lake though today’s arrangements for now are based on a short picnic lunch included, but no sightseeing rests.


Your Ultimate Safari guide will transfer you to the Windhoek International Airport to check-in for your ongoing flight at (no earlier than 16h00). You bid farewell to your guide, with this being officially the end of your Namibian Safari. 


We hope to see you again soon, Bon voyage…!